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What do the Police do?

Before you read on, this is not my text and it didn’t happen to me!
My personal experience with the Police was that they came when called, but if the below text is an accurate representation then that Police force has some questions to answer.

I’m good friends with the guys
who run my local garage.

For reasons I won’t bore you with
-- long story! -- I had a load of old
tyres to get rid of this weekend
just gone.

The guy who runs the garage
told me to bring them down on
the weekend and throw them
in the back of the Garages van.

It never moves and has a broken
door, so you can open and close
it without a key.

A friend helped me load up the
100 or so tyres, one load at a
time, and we drove back and
forwards, depositing the tyres
in the van as we went.

Anyway, the point of all this is
that someone called the Police
because they thought we were
breaking in to the van!

This was on Saturday at about
5pm.

So what’s the reason I’m telling
you this?

Well, the first we heard of it was
on Monday morning when the
Garage called me, laughing.

The Police had just called them
to let them know that someone
had broken in to their van over
the weekend and that they
should check if anything had
been stolen!

They hadn't seen it as serious
enough to attend...

I’ve always been a bit skeptical
when I hear stories about the
Police not turning up to reported
crimes, but this is exactly what
happened!

I really could accept this if they
were out dealing with violent
crime, for example.

And of course in some instances
they are, and a fine job I'm sure
they do.

HOWEVER, the very next
morning, I drove past a Police
mobile speed trap less than a
mile from where we “broke in”
to the van...

Isn’t it disgraceful that Police can’t
turn up to a reported crime (even
if it turns out not to be) on a
Saturday afternoon, but they can
sit on a bridge issuing fines to
Motorists on a Sunday morning?

there are 2 issues here .... one is that we live in a world of cuts to budgets not just to police ... it is now common that if you phone police they will ask these quetions.
is the suspected crime in progress ? is the person on scene ? is there any evidence including cctv . are there any witnesses ? here is your crime number for insurance purposes !!

secondly .. the camera van is operated by civilians not police officers just like a civilian will be behind the desk at a police station ( if you can find one open ) this is the state of policing in the uk at present..how many times have you seen a PC with a PCSO because PCSO is cheaper. I go to yorkshire at least 4 times a year we play the can you spot a police car between gosport and sheffield on the journey ? not once ! We are all to blame sadly as many will turn out to stop a school closing , a hospital or protest that a migrant family has been abused but can you recall a mass protest that a police station was being closed ? I think recently Durham had 2 officers on duty on a night shift . It wont be long before anyone can get away with anything because the lack of police or civil disorder will be the norm. !!

The text did say a mobile speed trap, not a camera van. And the mobile speed traps around here are usually a Police car on a bridge with two more a mile down the road pulling people in and ready to give chase. Minimum 3 cars and 4 officers.

point taken but then roads policing units dont respond to run of the mill police work . thats why they are called road policing . why would a traffic unit turn up at a break in ? although some traffic cars in hampshire had gun safes in the back to respond to armed incidents saving the authorised cops going to a station to book out guns . but now they have ARV'S which are easily identified by the symbol on the vehicle. Going back to the initial thread if more people wrote to the crime commissioner with complaints then that might have some bearing or if more serious then the IPPC. whats more worrying now is that police dont respond to shoplifters ! even if they are still in the shop they now say its a civil matter so trying to get a name and address from a drug alcohol induced threatening moron will be a a non starter for the store staff !! Good old England !!

I’m only to take issue with your statement that road policing units don’t respond to run of the mill work. When I had to call the police for a break-in nearby, the unit that responded was indeed traffic.
Now, of course that may vary from force to force and we shouldn’t generalize.
I don’t have an issue with your comments about underfunding and believe we will all suffer if under investment continues.

Reading the original posting, you have to symapthise with the guy concerned. It is frustrating when the police appear to prioritise lesser incidents. Although, I've read that a mobile speed trap can be any vehicle carrying speed camera equipment which can park at the side of a road, so I guess it could have been a camera van. And if true that those are operated by private companies, that adds doubt as to whether it was directly using police resources.
But I agree, the police do appear to be very low in thieir numbers these days, which is down to funding and is thanks to our government. But I must say that my experience is that they do seem to prioritise malicious crimes more likely to directly affect the safety of people. We had a spate of teenagers egging our windows and bashing on our doors at night a few years back (and I do mean bashing!). Must have been distressing for old folk. We were unable to catch them or even find out who they were, but the police definitely increased patrols and actually came to see me once. They didn't catch them but it happened during the day once while I was home. I flung a window open and thanked the little sh#t for doing during the day so that I now knew what he looked like and where he lived (which I didn't lol). It all stopped after that.
But going back to speed traps and cameras, I would say that they do sometimes seem to be positioned where they can hardly be saving lives, just making money!